Some household tools can be handy when fly fishing. Learn how to pack equipment to go fly fishing with these video instructions.
Alvin has been a fly fishing guide and casting instructor for 12 years, and has been fly fishing for 32 years. He is a graduate of the first Joan Wulff fly-casting instructor's school, and has fished all over the western United States, Canada, Belize, Argentina, Chile and Honduras.
ALVIN DEDEAUX: So the basic tools you're going to need. Hemostats, those are good for mashing down the barbs on your hooks, also good for grabbing a hook and getting it out of fish's mouth, and these have a nice little feature here that you can actually mash the split shot down with. They come in all different sizes and shapes, bigger ones, longer ones, some of them are brightly colored, some of them are colored, anodized like a matte black so they don't reflect light. There's just different hemostats for different finger sizes, you name it. Another really important tool and a kind of a must-have tool is your clippers obviously for clipping the line, if you add and tip it or you got a knot and you need to cut your leader to retie it, you want to have clippers. Another thing that's important on your clippers is this little needle. This one actually has a retractable needle. That's really good, like say you've got the eye of your flies all gunked up. Sometimes when they tie them, they'll have an extra paint or glue covering the eye and you can use that needle to poke out the eye. Also if you get a tangle, you can actually use that needle to stick in there and kind of untangle the knot you have in your line. Another real nice thing to have is a hook sharpener for obvious reasons; you want to keep that hook sharp. This one's cool 'cause it's made out of a ceramic material, so it won't rust, and I've had that one for years and it's been in saltwater, it's been in fresh water, and it still keeps my hooks nice and sharp. As far as tools go, that's your basics. There's a lot of other stuff you can have pliers, pocket knife, but if you got clippers and hemostats, hook sharpener, that should get you by.
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